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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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Where Will Man Take Us? summary
Atul Jalan
The Bold Story of the Man Technology is Creating
25 mins
Brief summary
'Where Will Man Take Us?' by Atul Jalan explores the future of humanity in the midst of technological advancements. It raises questions and provides insights into what lies ahead for us as we navigate through the ever-changing landscape of science and technology.
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Where Will Man Take Us?
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Key idea 1 of 8
Artificial intelligence is improving through learning, and machines are becoming more cognitive.
In 1997, Deep Blue, an IBM supercomputer, beat the legendary chess player Gary Kasparov in a six-game series. It was a major step forward for artificial intelligence. But it was possible because chess is a relatively finite game, based on clear rules. Teach a machine the rules, and you can teach it to win.
So far, artificial intelligence has been good at performing individual tasks like playing chess. It can, as Apple’s Siri demonstrates, learn to understand your voice and follow commands; it can even translate one language into another.
But so far, it hasn’t learned to replicate wider human intelligence effectively. Things that come naturally to us, like intuition or creativity, remain difficult for machines. That’s starting to change, however, as the game Go shows us.
Go is a fantastically complicated two-player board game in which you try to surround more territory than your competitor. At any given time in a game of chess, there is an average of 35 possible moves available. In Go, there are 250. There are 361 squares on a Go grid, compared to 64 in chess, and an incredible 10170 potential board configurations. That’s too many to really comprehend, but for perspective, it’s far more than the number of atoms in our universe.
So when you play Go, you have to rely more on human intuition and feel than logical, rule-based decisions. It just isn’t possible to do all the calculations. That’s why when AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence created by Google’s DeepMind research unit, beat Lee Sedol, a top player of the game, it was clear that we’re on the cusp of major advances. But how did AlphaGo succeed?
Well, DeepMind gave it a collection of 30 million moves collected from human players and then trained it to play. The machine was then programmed for reinforcement learning, which mimics the way that our brains work. That meant that the artificial intelligence collected points when it did something that proved to be correct and lost them when it made mistakes. Then DeepMind trained AlphaGo against different versions of itself. Each time it played a game, it would learn by remembering which move brought it a reward, creating a cycle of improvement.
Observers of AlphaGo commented that its moves were inventive, with seasoned players even describing some as “divine.” Clearly, machines are becoming more human, developing intuition and creativity. Rather than being programmed, as with the rules of chess, they are teaching themselves to learn. And this shift is getting faster.
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What is Where Will Man Take Us? about?
Where Will Man Take Us? (2019) explores how, thanks to rapid technological advances, humanity has come to stand on the cusp of a great leap forward. In just decades, our economy, health and perhaps even our biology will be transformed; these blinks explore these developments and the difficult ethical and societal questions they pose.
Where Will Man Take Us? Review
Where Will Man Take Us? by Atul Jalan (2019) takes readers on a thought-provoking journey into the future of technology and its impact on humanity. Here's why this book is worth reading:
- Explores cutting-edge technologies like AI, robotics, and blockchain, providing fascinating insights into their potential and implications.
- Examines the ethical and social dilemmas that arise from our ever-evolving relationship with technology, urging readers to reflect on the consequences of our choices.
- Presents a balanced perspective that is both optimistic and cautionary, encouraging critical thinking and meaningful discussions about the future.
Who should read Where Will Man Take Us??
- Mortals who hope one day to achieve immortality
- People who’d like to get to grips with the latest tech developments
- Big thinkers interested in the future of humanity and human society
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Where Will Man Take Us? FAQs
What is the main message of Where Will Man Take Us??
Discover the potential and pitfalls of technology and how it will shape our future in Where Will Man Take Us?.
How long does it take to read Where Will Man Take Us??
The reading time for Where Will Man Take Us? varies but typically takes a few hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in around 15 minutes.
Is Where Will Man Take Us? a good book? Is it worth reading?
Where Will Man Take Us? is a thought-provoking book that offers insights into the future of technology and its impact on society. A must-read for those interested in the digital age.
Who is the author of Where Will Man Take Us??
Atul Jalan is the author of Where Will Man Take Us?.
What to read after Where Will Man Take Us??
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